Location Filming Falls in 2017

On-location film, television and commercial production decreased by more than 3 percent last year compared to 2016, according to figures released Tuesday by FilmL.A.

Still, the 38,284 shoot days handled by the Hollywood nonprofit that coordinates location film permits in Los Angeles, unincorporated county and other jurisdictions was the second-highest total in recent years. In 2016, on-location filming hit a recent high of 39,627 shoot days.

Commercials and other projects, which includes music videos, still photography and student films, were the two categories showing increases in location production from 2016. Commercials went up by 9 percent to 5,548 shoot days, while other projects increased by 3.1 percent to 13,617 shoot days.

Feature film location filming went down by nearly 20 percent to 3,901 shoots days. Television decreased by 7.6 percent to 15,218 shoot days.

A shoot day is one crew’s permission to film at one or more locations during a 24‐hour period.

FilmL.A. President Paul Audley again credited the state’s production tax incentives for creating an environment of higher filming in the Los Angeles region.

“Our ability to achieve and sustain a high level of production over the past few years is substantially due to the California Film and Television Tax Credit – which is creating thousands of jobs and returning high economic benefits to California,” Audley said in a prepared statement.

Feature films receiving incentives from the tax credit program made up 279 shoot days, or about 30 percent of features total. That represents double the percentage of incentivized features shooting on location in 2016.

Production on soundstages, a new measurement taken by FilmL.A., showed there were 4,706 shoot days from January through June of last year on soundstages operated by 12 studios, including Warner Bros. Entertainment and Walt Disney Co. in Burbank, and Universal Studios in Universal City. Nearly 3,000 of the shoot days was taken up by work for one-hour and half-hour television series, while 92 shoot days were for feature films.